A four-year journey came to an end last week, with the final meeting of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-sponsored Life WolfAlps EU project, an initiative aimed at improving the relationships between wolves and humans in the European Alps as well as fostering conservation efforts on broader biodiversity issues across the continent.
The conference, which was held on 18th and 19th May in Trento, Italy, highlighted the numerous achievements of the Life WolfAlps EU project over the last four years while also looking to the future.
The objective of the project was simple: “to improve the co-existence between human activities and wolf populations in the Alps by implementing coordinated actions across the Alpine ecosystem, particularly in France’s Mercantour National Park, Italy, Switzerland and Slovenia”.
Wolves were reintroduced to the western Alps two decades ago, though efforts in France began considerably earlier, back in 1992 with the opening of Alpha Park near the Alpes-Maritimes village of Saint-Martin Vésubie in the Mercantour National Park. Since then, there have been other colonisation efforts made in the central-eastern Alps, where wolves have been identified as a threatened species.
The methods and approaches undertaken during the Life WolfAlps EU project were varied and included a ‘predator-prey’ programme that studied in-depth the interactions between prey, predators and humans in this part of the Alps. Other initiatives involved the use of anti-poison dog units to prevent the illegal culling of wolves, the creation of Wolf Prevention Intervention Units (WPIU) tasked with coming up with solutions for better wolf-human co-existence, and the establishment of a Young Ranger programme to engage youth in the protection and preservation of these Alpine regions.
The recent conference also touched upon the survival of other predatory species in the area, such as the lynx and the golden jackal, as well as themes pertaining to biodiversity management in Europe and how humans can successfully live side-by-side with native wildlife.
To read more about the Life WolfAlps EU project, click here.
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Photo credit: Archive APAM / Augusto Rivelli / FPA2